Cassville Democrat: High School Sports: CHS season ends in district semi-finals (10/13/11)

Out at first Democrat Photo/Jared Lankford Third baseman Cari Vollenweider throws out an Aurora runner at first during the Ladycats' 2-0 district opening victory over the Lady Houn's last Wednesday. Jaime Everett is the Cassville first baseman. [Order this photo]

The Cassville Lady Wildcat softball team's season ended Thursday night with a 5-0 loss to the Carl Junction Lady Bulldogs in the Class 3, District 12 semi-finals.

Cassville fell behind 2-0 in the first inning and struggled to find its offensive rhythm.

Emily Speakman threw a solid game for the Lady Wildcats. She allowed five runs on five hits and struck out three.

Cassville threatened to score twice. In the second inning, Cari Vollenweider singled to right field and stole second. Kelsey Vollenweider singled to put runners at the corners but was unable to get the clutch hit.

In the sixth inning, Speakman and Cari Vollenweider collected two-out singles but failed to score.

Carl Junction added single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to provide the final margin of victory.

"The girls finished one win better than last year with back-to-back winning seasons," said Coach Ben Abramovitz. "This team had a lot of firsts that were achieved, and all of those achievements came as a team effort.

"The seniors that are leaving have helped get this program where it is today, and I will forever be grateful to them for that," continued Abramovitz. "No matter what individual honors any of these kids receive, everything we accomplished this year was done as a team."

Win over Aurora

To advance to the semi-final game, Cassville defeated Aurora 2-0 in a district-opening thriller last Wednesday.

The Lady Wildcats pressured the Lady Houn' Dawgs with runners in scoring position in the first three innings.

Speakman allowed one hit in seven innings, and she struck out five batters to pick up the win.

Cassville broke through for two runs in the fifth inning.

Paighton Brock walked to open the fifth, and Kelsey Baker and Raeghan Blisard each singled to load the bases. With one out, Jaime Everett hit a sacrifice fly to score Brock. Speakman then singled to score Baker.

The Lady Wildcats defense preserved the victory.